Akatsuki StoriesKisame and the New Girl
by hissoritenshi
Summary: Well title is somewhat self-explanatory. A new kid joins the Akatsuki and is placed under the charge of Itachi and Kisame.


**I guess this would kind of be a modernized fairy tale. I normally despise them, not everything works out so easily in real life, but y'know, I had an idea and I just had to run with it. Yes, I am a hypocrite, how did you guess?**

----

Kalin was the new girl in the Akatsuki. She had been recruited for her healing abilities and her amazing control of water. The lucky duo that got to train the new girl was none other than Itachi and Kisame.

A little bit of info on Kalin. She is about 5'6," and has long brown hair that always falls into her eyes. She has been on her own since she was fourteen years old when she lost her family in a fire; it was that same fire that she lost her eyesight. Because she had to make it on her own, Kalin has developed her own way of seeing so that no one knows that she is blind; she can "see" the chakra flow through people's bodies and has a 'sight' quite similar to infrared sensors, she can 'see' the heat. Kalin doesn't want anyone to know that she is blind because she doesn't wish to be treated differently. She is confident in her fighting and healing abilities as well as her ability to figure things out herself. Kalin is aware that if word gets out, she would receive special treatment for her 'disability' or people would discount her for the same reason, neither of which she wants. She's also pretty sure that the Akatsuki would ditch her in a heartbeat if they found out, and she really needs the job. A blind kid, no matter how talented, can only make it so long without help and she's already done it for about six years.

Back to now, when Pein first introduced Kalin to the two boys, they were less than impressed. "Another snot nosed kid that we train for two days before they die or are committed because they couldn't take the strain," Kisame thought. And their opinions weren't changed when Kalin walked in, all slight 5'6" of her; besides, the latest failure was a hulking almost seven foot tall wrestler type guy.

Kalin silently followed the boys out of the room on the tour of the base. As the boys pointed out the different rooms in curt, uninterested tones, Kalin merely glanced into each one and nodded, memorizing the layout. The two boys had trained a girl before and couldn't stand her constant chatter, they couldn't figure out why this one wouldn't say anything!

After the short tour the boys left Kalin at her room. She sighed trying to remember where everything was. After all, they expected her at the dining room in two hours to meet everyone during dinner and she was pretty sure they wouldn't like her being late. Thankfully, she had a good memory.

Anyway, after a quick shower, Kalin changed into her new black and red cloak, brushed her hair into her eyes so that no one could see that they were cloudy, and headed toward the dining room tucking a small silver necklace into her collar.

When she got there, Pein gestured toward the seat Kalin was to take and she quietly stood behind the chair, waiting for the others to arrive. At this point it was just Pein, Kalin, and the girl that Kalin had been previously introduced to, Konan. Right at seven, when dinner was to start, everyone rushed in and took their seats. Kalin found herself between Kisame and Itachi. She sat trying to look calm and composed as Pein introduced who she was and why she was here. So they went around the table obligingly stating their names, they did this quite often; they had it down to an art. They knew if they did this quickly, they could eat. Kalin memorized their names, as they spoke them: the red head was the puppeteer Sasori, the blond was Diedara, Tobi was the one in the mask, Hidan was the other blond who liked to curse (he had managed to fit like three cuss words in while just saying his name), Kakuzu looked liked he had been sewn together from odd pieces, and Zetsu was kinda like a giant plant. All in all a pretty ragtag bunch.

After dinner, Kalin changed into a pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt, slipped on sandals, and headed down to a lake about a mile from the base; Pein had told her about the lake, knowing her love of water.

When she got there, she waded out to about knee deep water and closed her eyes. Then because no one else was around, she didn't hold back. She released all of her tension and stress into the water, causing large waves and violent movement in general. Once she did that, she stepped onto the top of the water and walked to the center of the lake, sitting down as most would on the banks.

Now that she was more relaxed, the water seemed relaxed as well, almost playful. Small bubbles danced around the surface in the waning light. Kalin scooped up a handful of water and tossed it into the air; it became like little snowflakes floating back into the lake and onto Kalin's upturned, smiling face. Pulling up a snake of water, Kalin entertained herself by changing it into different shapes. She had just changed it into a pale blue flower in the palm of her hand when she was startled by a voice asking, "How do you do that?"

Not recognizing the voice immediately, the many bubbles changed into small, but deadly, spikes and began to fly at the person on the shore. It wasn't until he pulled out Samehada to block the tiny icicles, did Kalin recognize one of her reluctant teachers.

The spikes instantly turned to droplets of water and fell to the ground as Kalin's cheeks burned and her hair fell back across her face.

"Hoshigaki-sama, I'm so sorry! I didn't recognize you!" Kalin was really mad at herself. She was trying to make a good impression on the Akatsuki and was pretty sure that almost killing one of the existing members didn't count as 'good.'

Kisame cocked an eyebrow, "If you tell me how you did that, I'll be okay with nearly being stabbed by centimeter long pieces of flying ice and actually think that it's pretty cool. No pun intended of course."

"Of course," Kalin said confused, "I had assumed you knew about this. Leader-sama recruited me for this ability."

"The others probably do, but no one tells me anything," Kisame shrugged, "I think Pein-sama deliberately waits for me to go swimming at night before making his announcements. I only knew you were coming because you're my team's responsibility."

"You go swimming here every night?"

"Well…I'm a shark…"

"I can find another place if you want so that I don't bother you."

Kisame shrugged again, "You're on the surface and I'm on the bottom; as long as you don't make the lake spit me out or whatever, its fine."

"It's a deal," Kalin smiled a little, "Now, back to your original question. This is a kekkai genkai of sorts. Well, to categorize it a little more accurately, its more of a defense thing like Gaara of the Sand has. The way he controls sand is the way I can manipulate water and ice; even steam and any other forms of water such as rain or fog. It just kind of happens." She shrugged, "Does that answer your question?"

Kisame thought about it, "Yeah, I guess." He walked forward to the edge of the water, "Now don't think I'm just being unsociable, but I just really need to swim."

"Hey don't let me stop you," Kalin sat back down, "but if you don't mind, I'm gonna stick around a little longer."

Kisame dove in, deliberately making a large splash, trying to catch Kalin off guard and get her wet; but the water parted and went on both sides of her instead of on top of her.

Kalin smirked knowing full well what Kisame had just tried to do, so she quickly turned the lake's consistency into something more like molasses to get back at her mentor.

The reaction was instantaneous. Kisame hauled himself to the surface and scowled, "That's not funny."

Kalin shrugged, "You tried to splash me."

Kisame tried to look angry as he said, "That's not the same thing!" but failed miserably as his mouth was being tugged upward into what threatened to be a smile.

Kalin smiled smugly as she turned the water's consistency back to that of water, "Don't mess with the water girl if you're gonna go swimming, jaws."

Kisame started humming the jaws theme song as he circled Kalin before chuckling and diving back underwater.  
----

The next morning Kalin quickly got dressed and grabbed a small breakfast from the kitchen before heading to the training room to meet Itachi and Kisame. A small part of her wondered if Kisame remembered what had happened at the lake the night before.

Well, he did. The first thing he did when she walked in was throw water at her, miss horribly even without her having to avoid the spray, and ended up soaking his partner. And yes, Itachi was thrilled about having to go back to his room to change robes due to his partner's "idiocy."

Kalin chuckled as Kisame was trying to mop up the water on the floor like Itachi not so kindly demanded that he do. "Your partner does get ticked off pretty easily huh?" Kalin asked from where she was sitting on one of the rafters on the ceiling.

"Yeah, he doesn't have much of a sense of humor," Kisame agreed smirking.

"Want some help?" Kalin offered.

"Yeah, but there's only one mop," Kisame said looking up at Kalin.

Kalin rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Its water," she reminded him.

"What? Oh!" he exclaimed as she quickly moved the water into the bucket from whence it had come.

---

When Itachi came back into the room, he found Kalin still lounging among the rafters and Kisame sitting against the far wall, the mop and bucket having been discarded in the corner by the door.

"What are you doing?" Itachi demanded.

"Uh, playing twenty questions," Kisame said, "You have nineteen questions left."

"You took too long getting changed." Kalin added.

"And it never occurred to you to start our charge on her training?" Itachi demanded, ignoring Kalin.

"If I did, you'd complain about what I started with," Kisame replied dryly, "and besides, she actually happens to have a name."

"What a concept," Kalin added.

Itachi sighed, "Alright. Kalin. What do you know?"

"About fighting?" Kalin asked, raising her eyebrows, "Or plumbing, because I'm not a bad electrician but I know nothing about re-piping the system.

Kisame snickered as Itachi heaved another sigh and glared at Kalin and Kisame, "Yes, Kisame, I can tell she is a friend of yours." Then turning to Kalin he said, "Yes, fighting. How much do you know?"

Kalin hopped down from the rafters, landing as lightly as a cat, "Enough that I managed to survive on my own for years as well as get into this _prestigious_ organization with little difficulty."

Itachi didn't look convinced, "Show me."

"Uh, run that by me again?"

"Sorry, did I go to fast? I want you to show me what you know. In short, fight me."

"Fight you? Hmm, guys aren't supposed to hit girls, but it never said anything about a girl hitting another girl so I guess that makes this battle ok," Kalin retorted, "You're on."

---

In short Kalin beat Itachi. The sharingon can see pretty much the same thing as Kalin sees, and due to the fact that she's blind, eye based genjutsus are pretty ineffective. Kisame thought the whole thing was thoroughly hilarious, but Itachi found it less than amusing. He headed back upstairs to his room to sulk after muttering to Kisame to continue the lesson.

"Ok, so obviously you know more than just the basics," Kisame said stating the obvious.

"It happens when fending people off all alone for several years," Kalin said shrugging.

"Ok, so um," Kisame said, rather at a loss, "I'll show you a couple of jutsu's that all of us in the Akatsuki have to learn."

So Kalin spent the rest of the day learning these jutsus. It was a little easier in some ways, harder in others, for her to learn jutsus. She can see how the chakra flows so that's easier, but she can't really see what the hand signs are. Let's just say that one time she tried to learn an ice jutsu and ended up with the Phoenix Flower jutsu instead; a great jutsu, but not exactly one that was supposed to happen. Kisame enjoyed this all immensely.

---

As time went on, and everyone began to realize that she wasn't going anywhere, Kalin became a respected member of the group-not to mention the fact that Konan was thrilled to have a girl around. Besides being a good fighter, Kalin was also a great help as a medic because in all honesty all Kakuzu can really do is sew limbs back on.

After the death of Itachi, Kalin became Kisame's partner-Kalin was thrilled because then she got to leave the hideout and do some fieldwork instead of just paperwork.

All was going well until one day when Konan set Kalin up on a blind date (no pun intended. No one knows Kalin is blind, remember?); despite the fact there are only a certain number of people in the Akatsuki, and Pein is certainly not eligible, Kalin is still fairly in the dark. This is partially due to being oblivious and partially because she just can't understand what anyone would see in her (I don't mean for these puns to keep popping up!!)

Kalin was waiting down at the lake, shoes in hand, feeling the water swirl around her ankles, soothing her anxious heart. Just as she was getting ready to leave because it didn't seem like anyone was going to show up, she heard a twig crack behind her. "Hey, you're late," she smirked.

"Heh, yeah. Sorry about that," Kisame shrugged sheepishly.

Kalin spun around. "Kisame?" she asked incredulously.

"Umm, yeah?"

"You're my blind date?"

"Ummm, yeah?"

"Why is that a question? Don't you know it's rude to answer a question with another question?" Kalin asked with a smile.

"Then why are you doing the same?" Kisame grinned back.

"Because I asked the first question."

"Ah, I see."

"Do you?"

"Yeah?"

Kalin laughed then plopped down, "So are you here as my blind date or not? The way you answered, you didn't sound sure. Or are you here to say that whoever it was broke the date, had second thoughts, sent you as their proxy, or otherwise put you up to this?"

Kisame was silent for a minute. "Well, this was Konan's idea. But I wasn't going to say no; I guess I wasn't hiding my crush as well as I thought."

"I'm oblivious if it makes you feel better."

"Thanks, I guess."

"No problem," Kalin grinned at him, "So, where are we going?"

"Going?"

Kalin just shot him a 'are you serious?' look, "Well, I _thought_ we were supposed to be going on a date."

"Wait you're still willing to go, even though it's me?" Kisame asked.

"That's kind of what I said. Why wouldn't I? You have lower self-esteem than I do apparently."

"Well, I don't know about your self-esteem with this but as to why you wouldn't, I thought it would be obvious."

Kalin just gave him a blank look.

Kisame sighed then looked back at the lake, "Forget it."

"No, tell me. I'm kind of clueless remember?" Kalin gave her best pleading look.

Kisame sighed again, "Well, I'm blue. I'm a shark. Any of this ring a bell?"

A slow smile spread across Kalin's face, "Is that it?

"Why are you smiling? And yeah I guess."

"Well then, come on, let's go!" Kalin stood up and held out a hand.

"Go where?"

"Well since obviously I'm going to have to plan this whole evening, let's go!" Kalin nodded decisively.

"Why?"

"Because you're not doing anything but whining, that's why!"

"No I meant you never answered my first question, why don't you seem to care about any of this?" Kisame asked.

Kalin sighed and sat back down. She was quiet for a little bit, and as Kisame began to get antsy, she suddenly said, "I can trust you right? I mean, you can keep a secret if I trust you with one?"

"….Yeah."

"It's really important! You have to promise," Kalin insisted staring as if she could see right through him.

"I can keep a secret. I promise," Kisame said, brushing Kalin's hand softly.

Kalin bit her lip, "I'm blind."

"What?"

"I'm blind ok? I know it's not normally all that big of a deal, a lot of people get on fine blind. But I would most likely be kicked out of the Akatsuki if anyone knew, and I've spent my entire life tricking everyone into thinking that I can see because I didn't want anyone to treat me different like I know they would if they knew. But that's also why appearances never bother me. Because they literally don't mean anything to me; I can't see them."

"You mean you've been blind this entire time?" Kisame asked.

"No, Kisame. I just became blind an hour and a half ago. Yes, this whole time!"

"Ok that was a dumb question, but really? You're blind? I don't know if I believe you, you don't seem like it."

"Because it's been _years_ since I lost my sight. I'm great at hiding it by now."

"Prove it."

Kalin pushed her hair to the side, "Look at my eyes."

Kisame leaned in close, Kalin's eyes were cloudy and when he moved his hand back and forth in front of her eyes, her pupils never so much as twitched.

He leaned back, "Huh, so you're blind. Damn you're good!"

"Told ya."

"So, what do you want to do tonight then?"

"Now you're talking." Kalin smiled.

"So this blind date thing is pretty literal for you huh?" Kisame asked impishly.

Kalin pushed him over, "Shut up!"

**-----**

**Thanks for reading it this far. Let me know if it was worth the time reading!**


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